Door spring



Jn 23, 1931. H. L. SCHWARTZ ET AL 9 5 DOOR S PRING Filed Feb. 25, 1930Patented June 23, 1931 ,UNITED STATES PA NT OFFICE EENRY L. SCHWARTZ,CARL A. QUAST, AND IGUIS SPITZ, OF 'L'VIILWAUKEE WISCONSIN noon SPRING.Application filed. February 25, 1930. Serial No. 431,104.

This invention pertainsto door springs, and has primarily for its objectto provide a simple, nexpensive, and efiicient device of this character,in which the spring action is '5 reduced to a minimum, thus efiectivelyclosing the door without eXcessive slamming.

A further object'reside's in the provision of a door spring which actsas a gradual check and positive stop to limitthe outward movement of thedoor, thus preventing banging against the wall of the building withresultant damage to the door.

A further object resides in the provision of a device of the foregoingcharacter, which is adapted to normally lay parallel to the door withinthe confined width of the door casing so as not to interfere with theuse of double doors hinged upon opposite sides of the casing.

Incidental to the foregoing, a more specific object resides in theprovision of a pair of spring-urged arms pivotally connected to a doorand casing, respectively, and having their floating ends connected bymeans of a link.

A still further object resides in the provison of a pair of attachingbrackets adapted to be secured to a door and casing, respectively, foreither right or left operation, and

each having pivotally connected thereto, a spring-urged arm, thefloating ends of said arms being connected by a link, whereby a gradualcheck and positive stop is provided for the opening movement of thedoor, thus relieving excessve strain upon the parts and preventingthedoor from swinging outwardly against the wall, and also enabling thedoor to be releasably held in open position by forcing the arms slightlypast center.

i With the above and other objects in view, which will appear as thedescription proceeds, theinvention resides in the novel construction,combination and arrangement of parts substantially as hereinafterdescribed,

and more particularly defined by. the 'appended claims, it beingunderstood that such changes in the precise embodiment of the hereindsclosed invention may be made as come within the scope of the claims.

In the accompanying drawings is illus- .face of the door.

trated one complete example of the hysical embodiment of the presentinvention constructed according to the best mode so far devised for thepractical application of the principles thereof. i

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a fragmentary section of a door and casingwith the present invention applied thereto, the same being taken'looking upwardly at the top of the casing;

Figure 2 is a similar view'illustrating a door in open position; a

Figure 37 is a transverse section taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 1; and

Figure 4 is a detail section taken on the line 4-4 of Figure l. 3 5

Referring now more particularly to the accompanying drawings, thenumerall designates a conventional casing to which is attached' a swinging door2 provided with a j conventional hinge 3, the door being hung to Swingoutwardly with relaton to the casing, as illustrated in Figure 2.

A pair of brackets ;4 and 4' are secured to the casing and door,respectively, at a position outwardly from the hinge, and as best shownin Figure 3, each bracket is provided With Wings extending 'at rightangles to each other to permit attachment of the device to doorsswinging in either direction, thus eliminating the necessity ofproviding two different structures of brack'ets.

In the arrangement illustrated, the vertical wing of the bracket 4' issecured to the door by the screws 5, while the horizontal wing of thebracket 4 is secured to the top face of the door casing lby screws 6.Were the door to swng in the opposite direction, the method ofattachment would simply be reversed, and the horizontal wing of thebracket 4' secured to the top of the casin g 1, and the vertical wing ofthe bracket 4 secured to the inner Pivotally secured to each of thebrackets 4 and 4' is an arm 7 having pivot'ally secured thereto anoffset finger 8 for attachment ofone end of the contractile spring 9,the opposte end of each spring-being secured to ears ,10 proj ectingfromthe brackets 4 and 4' The j outer or fioating ends of thearms 7 areconnected by pivotal links 11 which compensate for the differentmovement of the arms 7 with relation to their attaching brackets.

In attaching the present invention, the brackets 4 and el' are Securedto the casing and door outwardly from the hinge 3, and the arms 7 extendaway from the hinge substantially parallel to the door in their normalposition, thus enabling the device to be attached within the confinedwidth of the door casing l, which permits the use of double doors hingedupon the opposite sides of the casing as, for instance, where it isdesired to augment the regular door with a storm door.

In operation, as the door is swung outwardly, it will be obvious thatthe arms 7 will be caused to Swing upon their pivots away from thespring anchoring ears 10, thus gradually increasing tension upon thesprings 9, which serve as a check to gradually retard opening movementof the door as it reaches the limits of its travel determined byalignment of the arms 7 as shown in Figure 2. It will be readily seenthat tension is equally distributed upon both springs and because of therelatively small movement between the arms 7 and the spring anchor ears10, minimum action of the springs is required, thus avoiding excessivetension upon the springs, which retards the movement of the door whenthe same is released and requires minimun effort for the openingoperation.

hen the door is swung open with relation to the casing, it will bereadily apparent that the springs 9 will be gradually extended, thusserving as a gradual check upon the outer movement of the door, and asthe door reaches that position where the arms 7, through their linkconnections 8, are aligned, a positive stop is afl'orded, which willprevent the door from slamming into an adjacent wall or obstruction withresultant damage.

In the event that it is desired to maintain the door 2 in open position,the same is readily accomplished by forcing the arms 7 slightly pastcenter, as indicated by dotted lines in Figure 2, after the door hasreached the limit of its outward movement. In this position of the arms7, the springs 9 are so closely algned with the pivotal centers of thearms G as to be inefl'ective, and thus the door will be releasablymaintained in this position. To eflect closing, it is merely necessaryto swing the door outwardly again, bringing the arm 7 into alignment,after which the springs 9 function in their normal nanner to efiectclosing of the door.

Obviously, as the door is released, the springs 9 will graduallycontract to swing the arms 7 upon their brackets and return the door toclosed position, and while this is accomplished by contraction of bothsprings, in some instances where the device is used upon a light screendoor, which requires less spring tension to effect the closing, eitherone of the springs may be taken ofi and the closing operation efiectedby the remaining spring.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that a very simple, inexpensive andefiicient door spring has been provided which permits operation of thedoor with a minimum effort, and in addition retards the movement of thedoor to such an extent that it reduces to a minimum slamming and suddenstopping of the door, as well as serving to pcsitively limit its outermovement to prevent banging against a wall or adjacent obstacle.

Due to the fact that the members secured to the door and the casing areidentical in structure, one set of dies is suflicent to form both, thusmaterially reducing cost of manufacture.

Also, as heretofore explained, the device may be attached to a door andcasing to compensate for movement of the door in either directionrelative to the casng, and because of the compactncss of the device, andits method of attachment, the same can be employcd in confined spaces,such as between two doors hinged to the opposite sides of the casing.

We claim:

1. A device of the character described comprising a pair of angularbrackets connected to a door and door casing rcspectively, an arm havingits one end pivotally connected to the horizontal portion of eachbracket, a link pivotally connecting the other ends of said arms,apertured ears carried by the other angle of said brackets, and coilsprings having one end connected to the apertured ears and the other endconnected to the arms adjacent their ends which are pivotally connected.4

2. A device of the character described comprising a pair of bracketsconnected to a door and door casing respectively, an arm having one endpivotally connected to the normal horizontal portion of each bracket, alink connecting the other end of the arms, an apertured ear on the otherangle of each bracket, an offset aperturedfinger carried by each armadjacent the pivoted connection and coil springs having one endconnected to the apel-v tured ears and the other end connected to theapertured fingcrs for normally urging said door toward a closedposition.

In testimony that we claim the foregoing we have hereunto set our handsat Milwaukee, in the county of` hilwaukee and State of Wisconsin.

HENRY L. SCHWARTZ. CARL A. QUAST. LOUIS SPITZ.

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